


Bad Timing

by newspringrain (forever_bright)



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DCU, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Boys Being Idiots, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-20 10:01:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6001837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forever_bright/pseuds/newspringrain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver thinks Barry is dating Eddie. Eddie thinks the Flash is having a fling with the Arrow.</p><p>Barry wishes he was getting any action at all, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Oliver

**Author's Note:**

> This is my small attempt at a flirtation with the Flash fandom. Hello there.

Oliver wasn’t stalking Barry - it was more a strategic stake out of Barry’s evening activities.

He’d arrived in Central City seeking out Barry to discuss a criminal with strange abilities who had been appearing in Starling for the last week and he’d been told by one of Team Flash that Barry was with Detective Thawne of the CCPD.

Oliver had been envisaging Thawne as an older, portly Detective who needed Barry to explain some evidence to him or wanted Barry to look over some crime scene photos. Oliver had assumed it was a strictly professional meeting, even if it was 8:30pm on a Thursday night.

When he arrived at their location, he discovered it was bar and Barry was laughing with a handsome, overly charming blonde man who didn’t look anything like the detective of Oliver’s imagination. It was instinctive for Oliver to hang back and assess the situation, to critically examine why Barry’s eyes were crinkling every time he laughed and what exactly Thawne was saying that was so amusing.

Eventually, once he decided he needed more information than was offered by their body language, Oliver moved forward into earshot of the conversation. Neither man noticed his presence, and Oliver chose to believe that was due his stealth rather than the way the pair couldn’t stop staring into each other’s eyes.

“Come on Bar, it’s time to make it official,” pleaded Detective Thawne, sounding young and petulant and more than a little drunk. He reached out and clasped Barry’s wrist, making Oliver want to reach for his bow.

“Nope, no way,” replied Barry, smiling, shaking his head dramatically. Oliver knew Barry couldn’t get drunk, but it seemed to him as though Barry was a noticeably intoxicated by the wattage of the detective’s smile. “I’m not ready.”

“Everyone will be so excited, Iris will be happy! Joe will probably think it’s weird, but then he’ll be happy too!”

Thawne was drunk and letting in closer to Barry with every word, and Barry laughed and failed to pull away. They were too comfortable, too close and Oliver accepted grudging that they were together.

He slipped away silently, leaving Barry to his boyfriend. Oliver could manage the meta-human without Barry’s help.


	2. Eddie

Eddie certainly didn’t stalk the Flash, because following around someone with super speed was difficult, even for a cop. It turned out keeping track of the Flash though local news and social media, however, yielded positive results with minimal leg work.

He liked watching Barry run around saving the city, as hard as it was sometimes to remember that it was _Barry_ under that cowl. Eddie had dedicated his life to stopping crime and saving people, and seeing Barry do both with comparatively little effort struck a spark of jealousy and awe in Eddie.

He admired the Flash a lot and liked Barry even more, and Eddie often found himself wondering why he ever let himself imagine that someone with superpowers would be interested in him.

This was only proved further when one of the tech guys are the precinct showed him camera footage from the vest of a uniformed officer who had attended a raid the night before. The SWAT team has arrived to find the suspects tied up and all the evidence neatly laid out in plain sight, clearly the work of the Flash, however this particular officer had been in position at the back of the building and witnessed something else.

The Arrow had been appearing in Central City a lot recently. Eddie didn’t follow The Arrow’s movements closely, however he was regularly featuring in news reports about the Flash and Eddie wished he didn’t know that Oliver Queen was the Arrow. He didn’t want to think about the fact that Barry was hanging out with a rich, handsome and utterly ruthless vigilante.

The camera footage from the policeman’s chest camera had caught a conversation between the Flash and the Arrow (and Eddie personally couldn’t believe either of them had been so careless).

“Nice work,” said the Arrow, in that fake rough voice that made Eddie was to roll his eyes. Nobody really sounded like that.

“Yeah, neat, right?” laughed Flash. Eddie had to admit that actually perhaps Oliver was onto something with the fake voice, because Barry sounded painfully like himself. “I keep telling you we should make this a long term thing.”

“A few nights together doesn’t been anything,” replied the Arrow gruffly. The Flash pouted and Eddie wanted to reach through the screen, pull Barry out of there and away from that jerk.  

“I know you’ve had fun,” replied the Flash, teasing but also hopeful.

“This isn’t meant to be fun.”

The Arrow turned away and in a blink the Flash was gone.

Eddie managed to make the recording disappear before anyone else saw it and he planned to remind Barry to be more careful in future. When he was at home alone that evening, Eddie rewatched the footage and sighed.

They were involved. Barry had all the subtly of a baby elephant, and why would the Arrow leave his precious Starling City for nights on end if not for the pleasure of Barry’s company.

It was disappointing, but inevitable. The Flash and the Arrow made more sense together than the Flash and a random CCPD detective.


	3. Barry

A blizzard and some of Oliver’s ribs getting bruised in a street fight after a business meeting meant that family dinner at the West house had a few extra guests on Wednesday night.

Eddie had been coming around more regularly to eat with Iris, Joe and Barry (and he tried hard not to flirt too much with Barry at the dinner table). He found himself momentarily frozen when he left the kitchen and was greeted by the sight of a cold, wet Oliver Queen closing the front door.

“I think you’re turning blue,” frowned Barry, grabbing a blanket from the couch and offering it to Oliver. Oliver simply stared at him for a second and then said steadily, “Trust me, I’ve had worse.”

Oliver had instantly noticed the Barry’s detective boyfriend in the kitchen doorway, loitering with a salad in his hands, but he didn’t want to acknowledge him. It was petulant, but he was freezing and in pain and didn’t want to make small talk the man dating Barry instead of him.

_Damn blizzard_ , Oliver thought. There was no way he’d be able to ride his bike back until tomorrow and he was stuck playing happy families with Barry and Barry’s family and Barry’s insufferably good looking boyfriend.

_Damn blizzard_ , Eddie mentally cursed, finally moving forward to place the salad on the table next to the shepherd's pie. Barry had gone straight over to offer Oliver a blanket and Eddie knew that Barry and Oliver’s relationship – or was it a purely sexual arrangement? – was meant to be a secret, but seeing the way Barry’s worried eyes followed Oliver’s every movement was a clear giveaway of how much he cared.

Eddie left the room to get some wine from the kitchen, while Oliver excused himself to the bathroom to dry off, and Iris set into Barry about failing to mention that _Oliver Queen_ was popping around for dinner.

“It’s not the sort of thing most people forget,” she scolded, half joking and half flustered. “It’s kind of a big deal!”

“Yeah. I know.” Barry shrugged and looked very apologetic. “I just forgot, with the weather and the… other things that have happened today. Like, um, work stuff.”

Barry was still working on hiding his secret identity with any grace. Iris rolled her eyes at him.

“I suppose this at least makes the night more interesting. You know I had a date tonight.”

“I know,” replied Barry, having heard about this date and its subsequent blizzard related cancellation numerous times, “and he’s a film director and you can talk to him for hours. I’m very happy for you, remember?”

“Yes,” grinned Iris, “and what about you? When was the last time you when on a real date?”

Oliver was halfway down the stairs when he heard this and he couldn’t stop his eyes darting over to Eddie, who was pouring wine at the dinner table. Their eyes met, but no understanding passed between them.

“Never,” replied Barry with a smile, oblivious to the two men listening closely to his answer. “Or at least it feels that way. I’m not exactly dateable material… I think it’s the always being late and wanting to talk about the most recent addition of New Scientist that ruins it.”

Iris laughed, but Eddie swallowed and had to resist the urge to go and ask Oliver Queen exactly what he thought he was doing leaving Barry with opinions like that about himself. Barry was the definition of dateable, in Eddie’s mind.

“You don’t have a boyfriend?” Oliver asked, descending the stairs looking much more presentable. He knew Barry said in the bar he wasn’t ready to let people know about his relationship with Detective Thawne, but Oliver didn’t like that Barry was happy to talk about his own dating prospects so dismissively.

“Me?” blinked Barry, surprised by the question. Oliver wasn’t much for small talk about relationships. “Ah, no.”

“I thought you did,” replied Oliver. His eyes were intent on Barry, clearly pushing a point, but Barry had no idea what it was.

“Well, I don’t…,” said Barry again. He blinked at Oliver and Iris glanced between with a frown.

“I’m missing something here,” she said eventually. Eddie, sick of standing on the sidelines watching the Oliver Queen show, stepped forward.

“Barry, you can tell us about you and Oliver,” he said bluntly.

The room was silent for a noticeable second, before Oliver turned to Eddie and snarled, “Excuse me?”, while Iris turned on Barry with questioning eyes. Barry stared at Eddie before stumbling out a quick, “W-what about me and Oliver? There is no me and Oliver!”

“Because he’s dating you!” Oliver added angrily to Eddie, sick of these childish games.

“Wait, what?” chimed in Iris, but nobody was listening.

Eddie rounded on Oliver, his jaw tight, refusing to back down as Oliver glowered at him.

“I know you and he…,” Eddie began, but then paused to rephrase without revealing the Flash’s identity to Iris, “I know about your night time outings. And Barry deserves way more than someone like you.”

“You’re the one dating him,” snapped Oliver.

“I’m not,” replied Eddie forcefully.

Barry and Iris were watching the conversation unfold with identical shocked expressions.

“I heard you say it was time to make it official with Barry,” admitted Oliver accusingly, his embarrassment at being caught spying on Barry forgotten in the heat of the moment. “I heard you talking about it in a bar.”

“Oh, we’re starting a band,” said Barry, jumping in to try and diffuse the tense atmosphere between Oliver and Eddie. “Eddie and I are starting a band, sort of. Eddie wants to. He’s great on the guitar.”

Iris swallowed a laugh at this revelation and Barry continued, turning to Eddie.

“And Oliver and I are not… that. We’re just, you know, work at night. Nothing else. I’ve been trying to get him to do more work with me. Team up.”

Eddie stared at Barry, then glanced at Oliver’s stony face, before nodding once. The silence returned for a long moment.

“I think the weather is better,” said Eddie, not even glancing outside. His face was tinged red with embarrassment. “I’m going to head home. I should work on some case files.”

Eddie was barely out the door when Oliver said he needed to return to Starling. The freezing air whipped through the door as Oliver walked out only a few moments after Eddie, and Iris frowned anxiously after them.

“I really don’t think they should be outside,” she said, but Barry wasn’t listening.

He threw his arms up in the air and said to the room at large, “How am I still single right now?”


End file.
